The Contest
by Violet to Blue
Summary: Joe wants to prove that Italian cooking can contribute to the tradition of Texan barbecue.
1. Chapter 1

2

 **Houston Knights** is an American crime drama set in Houston, Texas. The show ran on CBS from 1987 to 1988 and had 31 episodes. The core of the show was the partnership between two very different cops from two different cultures. Chicago cop Joey LaFiamma is transferred to the Houston Police Department after he kills a mobster from a powerful Mafia family and a contract is put out on him. In Houston he is partnered with Levon Lundy, the grandson of a Texas Ranger. Although as different as night and day, and after a rocky beginning the two cops form a successful partnership and become friends. During the series, it is revealed that both LaFiamma and Lundy have their own personal demons. LaFiamma comes from a Mob family himself and his Chicago police partner had been killed when he went ahead while LaFiamma had waited for backup to arrive. Lundy´s wife had been killed by a car bomb that was intended to kill him.

Standard Disclaimer: Houston Knights belongs to Jay Bernstein and Michael Butler and Columbia Pictures. No copyright infringement is intended. This is fan fiction, written out of love for the shows. I am making no money off this. I have no money so please don't sue me. Any original characters who may appear in these stories are the property of the author.

Houston Knights Fanfiction

 **The Contest**

By Violet to Blue

Summary: Joe wants to prove that Italian cooking can contribute to the tradition of Texan barbecue.

Humor

 **Chapter 1**

"I really don´t understand how you can eat that stuff every day," Joseph Antony LaFiamma mused. His partner Levon Elmer Lundy was as usual burrowing into his plate of ribs with the extra hot barbecue sauce that was, according to Joe, just good for causing acute ulcer. He himself was picking at the plate of salad their friend Chicken, owner of the barbecue restaurant they hung out regularly, had put together for him, though there was no such item on the menu.

Joe sighed. He missed the good Italian cooking of his mother, grandmother and his aunts. He was a good cook himself but with the current caseload he hadn´t found enough time to do his own cooking in a while now.

From a culinary point of view he felt like starving down here in Texas. The local cuisine did not seem to have advanced from the stages of the wagon trains and campfires where whole cows were broiled over open flames until rendered black and inedible. Then the charcoal like remains of whatever animal had fallen prey to the hungry Texans was covered with some hot slop to further cover the shortcomings of any culinary effort.

Levon downright ignored his partner´s lamentation. The Italian´s mood seemed to have worsened ever since the sunny spring weather had led to an acute increase of cookout invitations among the colleagues of the bullpen. It was clear that Joe felt misplaced among the majority of detectives who cherished the usual selection of barbecued meat and hot sauce. To him it all tasted alike and with every invitation his reluctance to participate grew.

Furthermore Joe´s opposition to the customary Texan food had resulted in a good deal of teasing by his coworkers which he was finding harder to take every day. There seemed to be just one solution: to either keep away from those cookouts altogether or to contribute some really striking alternative to the one sided menu.

So the newspaper clipping from the Houston Advertiser Joe found on his desk at the station one Monday morning did not really come as a surprise. It rather seemed to fall into the line of mockery he had been subjected to over the last few weeks.

 _Recipe Contest – Submit recipe of your own homemade barbecue sauce and win 300 $ as first price, 200 $ and 100 $ for second and third price._

Whoever had put the clipping on Joe´s desk was surely referring to Joe´s indignant comments on Texan culinary habits.

Joe looked around. No one was paying any attention to him. It was hard to guess who had put the clipping there. None of the colleagues would pass up an opportunity to tease Joe. Lundy had come in with him and he was fetching them some coffee, so he was most likely not the one who had put the clipping there. Before anyone noticed Joe slipped the paper into his pocket.

Joe was determined to rise to the challenge. This was his chance to show those Texans his culinary skills.

Problem was that the closing date for the competition was only three days from now.


	2. Chapter 2

2

Tomatoes, chili peppers, celery?  
Ground pepper, salt, smoke flavor or  
beet roots, nutmeg, shrives, thyme?  
Maybe onions, garlic, ginger, soy sauce with  
bay leaf, turmeric, curry?  
And so on and so on…

The possibilities were endless. Joe was at a loss. He had skipped dinner at Chicken´s to shop for fresh ingredients. But he had no idea where to start. He had never before made a barbecue sauce and doubted he ever would have use for one. He rummaged around the shelves in the small supermarket and came across numerous spices and herbs, wondering which would best suit the purpose.

What Joe brought home was a mingle-mangle without structure. He unpacked everything and put it on the kitchen counter. He tried to imagine what his mom, his granny, his aunts would use for the purpose. But there was nothing. Italians just did not do barbecue.

Joey, pull yourself together! This is not the first time you face a culinary challenge. Use your imagination, you damn fool!

But the first evening passed and though Joe put together three different sauces, all of them were inedible as far as he was concerned. He flushed them all down the toilet. Then he went to bed feeling depressed.

IXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXI

"I want you to get hold of that gang, you hear?" Lieutenant Joanne Beaumont was fuming. The last week hadn´t rendered any satisfactory result in their search for the car thief gang. "I don´t care if you have to spend the whole night at it. The chief wants results and by now I have to admit I want them just as badly."

"But Lieutenant, I have…" Joe for once had a different idea of how to spend his evening.

"LaFiamma, I don´t care. You´ll go on that stakeout with Lundy, no matter what. I don´t want to repeat myself, I need results."

Levon shrugged. For him it did not matter where and how he passed his evening this night. But Joe seemed to mind. For once his Italian partner seemed to have something different and more important on his schedule.

"What´s the matter, LaFiamma? Yah got a new flame waitin´ for yah?" Levon smirked. "I don´t understand why of all days today is so damn important to you." Levon casually strolled to his Jimmy.

Joe did not want to admit what the problem was. The only option for anyone to find out about his participation in the contest was only after he had won it. Reluctantly he followed his partner as all the sulking and swearing accounted for nothing. This evening there was no way to avoid the stakeout which in the end turned out to be a waste of time.

When the partners split in the early morning to catch some much needed shuteye Joe passed his kitchen counter with the ingredients. The chance to design a fabulous barbecue sauce had passed for today. He shrugged and with a resigned yawn got into bed for three hours. Then he was back up and on his way to the station.

IXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXI

It seemed to be jinxed. Again the day was so busy that Joe did not get home before early evening. This was his last chance and considering his lack of inspiration it seemed a lost course. Joe shed his jacket and shirt. In his white T-shirt he started to peel the tomatoes, chop the fresh ginger and the onions. He mixed the spices and tried to imagine what this recipe should taste like. Certainly not like the ordinary barbecue sauce. Ok, some more oriental spices then. The taste was ok, though something still seemed to be missing. But what? And the consistency was far too watery, probably due to the fresh vegetables he had used. But he hated that ketchup like concentrated artificial taste and had painstakingly tried to avoid it.

With a disappointed sigh he sat down and wiped his face with the dish cloth. Somehow the result of today´s effort did not seem better than yesterday´s. But he could not afford to start all over again. He had already used up all the stuff he had bought and the shops were closed by now. What had he thought?

While the pot simmered on the stove Joe laid his head on his folded arms and closed his tired eyes. Just for a moment he wanted to rest. A minute later he was fast asleep.

IXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXI

"LaFiamma, open up, will yah?" The banging on the door was just the typical annoying way his Texan partner used to speed Joe up in the mornings. Always running late Joe would normally let Levon in.

Not today though. Joe opened the door just a crack. "Hold it, Lundy. Just a second." He closed the door again, right into the face of a baffled Texan. "Hey, I always knew your manners were strange, aren´t yah gonna let me in?"

"No," was all the answer he got today. Levon sniffed the air. Something smelled strangely, smokey. "What happened? Did yah try to burn down the place?"

But before Levon could find out more, Joe stormed past him, slamming the door shut again. "Come on, I thought you were in a hurry."

IXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXI

At work Joe pulled the sealed envelope with the recipe from his pocket. He had just finished writing the address of the Houston Advertiser on it when their Lieutenant stormed into the bullpen. "Aren´t you off to get Maxwell yet? I thought I had made myself clear yesterday."

Lundy rolled his eyes as he got up and donned his hat. Joe hesitated. If he did not get this letter posted now, he would not be able to meet the deadline of the contest. He looked around for help. Carol was standing at the desk next to him.

"Come on, LaFIamma, do you need a special invitation?" Levon called from the door of the bullpen.

"Carol, could you post this for me, today? It´s really urgent." Joe held out the letter and a five dollar note to his colleague.

Carol looked surprised. "Yeah, sure, Joey." She took the letter from his hand.

"Thanks, Carol, you´re a doll, and put my name and address on it, please, will you?" The next minute Joe was gone.

Carol sat down at her desk, turning the envelope over in her hand. She picked up the pen and started to write: J. LaFiamma, but she could not remember Joe´s address. After a moment she put the address of the station behind the name. If whoever got this, needed to get back to Joe, would find that the address of his place of work was as good as any.


	3. Chapter 3

1

Three weeks passed in which Joe kept track of the publications of the Houston Advertiser. Then in the latest issue Joe could read to whom the prices for the barbecue sauce contest had been awarded. He wasn´t even disappointed. What had he expected? Nothing he would ever cook would meet the requirements of the Texan taste, just as nothing in the Texan cuisine would ever satisfy him in turn.

Joe put the subject behind him.

Then one morning Carol came in and handed Joe a parcel. "This came for you yesterday, Joey. You were already gone." All the colleagues looked up curiously.

Joe wanted to put the parcel away. "Don´t you want to open it, Joey?" Carol asked. Annie had turned in the doorway, curiously eying Joe. Levon, Esteban and Joe-Bill had also caught on and had stepped closer. "Yeah, what have you got? Open it," Levon urged his partner teasingly.

Joe felt uneasy. But he knew that hiding the parcel away would arouse more suspicion than just opening it. He ripped it open. There was a piece of paper on top of a pink cloth item. He pulled it out, it was a pink apron with lots of frills.

At once Levon was beside him, taking the apron from his hand, mockingly putting it on. "Wow, LaFiamma, that´s just your style," he smirked. Joe-Bill and Nate could hardly refrain from laughing out loud.

Carol and Annie seemed genuinely amused. "Well, Joey, what is this about?" Annie asked. Joanne had come out of her office, attracted by the laughter and the commotion.

Annie, who had put the original paper clipping on Joe´s desk to encourage him, knew that he was thin skinned at times. She felt for him, whatever the cause for ridicule might be this time.

But Joe knew that now there was no way to avoid the embarrassing situation. He quickly scanned the letter. Then he took the apron from Levon´s hand and put it on himself. He picked up the letter and read it out loud, disregarding the scorn and instead grinning broadly:

"Dear Miss LaFiamma, thank you for submitting your recipe for the barbecue sauce contest. Though it did not quite meet the contest´s requirements, we found it extraordinarily appealing. That´s why we decided to award it with a special price. We hope you like the apron and we expect to hear from you in the future."

While Joe had read out the message aloud his face had turned just as pink as the apron. All the colleagues laughed. Even though the result of the contest had not been what he had expected, Joe´s reaction to the situation had, without doubt, earned him the respect of his coworkers.

Levon slapped Joe on the shoulder approvingly. "That settles it, you´ll make that sauce of yours for our next cookout."

It seemed strange but somehow stoically enduring the ridicule had transformed Joe from an outsider to being a reputable member of the Texan society. He grinned as he realized that he had, at last, found his niche.

THE END


End file.
